Attorney General William Tong urged Connecticut Insurance Commissioner Josh Hershman to reject double-digit rate hikes sought by Anthem, ConnectiCare, and UnitedHealthcare for individual and small group plans covering approximately 220,000 people across Connecticut, in a letter sent ahead of a public information session.
The Connecticut Insurance Department will hold the session on the rate requests beginning at 9 a.m. Wednesday, August 26, at the Legislative Office Building.
Tong said, "These insurers are, once again, requesting rate increases that exceed other inflationary and general economic growth measures. To put it bluntly: never-ending insurance rate increases reflect a broken system that does not deliver affordable healthcare for the struggling citizens of Connecticut. Once again, these increases and plan design changes project another year of consumers getting less for more."
Tong's letter commends the Insurance Department for assessing not just the actuarial underpinning of the rates but also underlying cost drivers, including rising prescription drug costs and reimbursements to increasingly consolidated health systems. The letter also takes the insurance carriers to task for failing to ensure reimbursement rates reflect actual costs of service and for failing to show they are curbing upcoding and fraudulent billing practices.
"Consumers are paying significant out of pocket costs and – believe me – they notice when they have to pay a substantial deductible charge for a service they did not ask for and did not receive," Tong said. "It is not uncommon for my Office to hear from patients when they notice they were charged for an emergency department visit after receiving care at an urgent care center or billed at an acuity level reflecting a life-threatening condition that did not match their non-life threatening symptoms."
Tong's letter also calls out ConnectiCare for mismanaging the migration of its claims payment systems to Molina Healthcare. "It is deeply concerning that the carrier requesting the highest increases should have provided some of the worst customer service during that transition and should have been so ill prepared for that transition many months after its acquisition was approved by the Connecticut Insurance Department," Tong said.
For individual plans, Anthem is seeking an average increase of 12.8 percent and ConnectiCare is seeking 22.7 percent. For small group plans, Anthem is seeking an average increase of 17.4 percent and UnitedHealthcare is seeking 18.9 percent. Under Connecticut law, the Insurance Department must determine that requested rates are not excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory before approving them.
